cle, the U.S. Army sought to ensure that a similar air
disaster involving special operations forces would
never be repeated. It established the 160th Special
Operations Aviation Regiment (the Night Stalkers),
which was specially trained and tasked with provid-
ing air transportation and support for special opera-
tions forces, as well as for general forces. In addition,
a unified command, dubbed the U.S. Special Opera-
tions Command (USSOCCOM), was created in 1987
to oversee the special operations forces of all four
branches of the military. This unified command was
first conceived in response to Operation Eagle Claw,
and it later arose out of the passage of the Goldwater-
Nichols Act of 1986, which established a unified
command structure for all U.S. armed forces.
Further Reading
Bowden, Mark.Guests of the Ayatollah: The Iran Hos-
tage Crisis, the First Battle in America’s War with Mili-
tant Islam. Berkeley, Calif.: Atlantic Monthly Press,
- Chronological analysis of the event, filled
with riveting narrative.
Farber, David.Taken Hostage: The Iran Hostage Crisis
and America’s Encounter with Radical Islam. Prince-
ton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004. Con-
tains excellent historical background and analysis
of anti-U.S sentiment in the Muslim world.
Houghton, David P.US Foreign Policy and the Iran Hos-
tage Crisis. Cambridge, England: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 2001. Scholarly political analysis of
policy making, with interviews of major decision
makers.
Irwin Halfond
See also Canadian Caper; Foreign policy of the
United States; Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986; Iran-
Contra affair; Middle East and North America; Rea-
gan, Ronald.
Irving, John
Identification American novelist
Born March 2, 1942; Exeter, New Hampshire
A best-selling and critically acclaimed novelist, Irving pub-
lished work during the 1980’s that helped readers under-
stand issues that were important to the decade, such as
changing sexual and family roles, abortion, and the after-
math of the Vietnam War.
John Irving became well known to readers with the
critical and financial success of his fourth novel,The
World According to Garp(1978). The novels he pub-
lished during the 1980’s,The Hotel New Hampshire
(1981),The Cider House Rules(1985), andA Prayer for
Owen Meany(1989), were similarly successful, both
because readers found them fascinating to read and
because they dramatized issues with which many
readers themselves were grappling. Each book was
also made into a film.
Irving’s work was inspired by his favorite novelist,
Victorian writer Charles Dickens. Like Dickens,
Irving devoted much time and effort to character
development, resulting in lengthy novels. Irving also
learned from Dickens and from Graham Greene,
another of his heroes, that emotional involvement
with the characters was the best way to engage a
reader’s attention. Because Irving’s novels often
mimic the structure and emotional appeal of nine-
teenth century realist texts, rather than engaging in
more experimental modes, they represent the world
in a way that was comfortable rather than threaten-
ing to many readers of the 1980’s.534 Irving, John The Eighties in America
John Irving.(© Marion Ettlinger)